I posted these photos in the good news thread, but figured I'd make a separate thread for this since a couple people have asked to me to post photos that must have missed the photos I posted in the good news thread.

Finally started working on my sleeve. It's going to be completely Native American themed. I'm part western Apache and I love that part of my heritage. Such an interesting group of people. I'm also a really big animal person so it's technically Native American/nature/animal themed. The grizzly bear head that this girl is wearing as a head dress represents my family on my dad's side. My maiden name sounds like Grizzly sort of so everyone in my family is jokingly called the Grizzly Bears. It's become our thing. The red fox basically represents what I consider my spirit animal or totem animal if you will. I've been having foxes pop up in my dreams for as long as I can remember. Usually the fox pops up in bad dreams and if I start walking towards the fox it leads me away from whatever is making my dream so scary. Sometimes the fox is there just observing me though not sure why. I used to write out my dream every morning as soon as I woke up to help me remember my dreams and a fox tended to be a part of the majority of them. I even made friends with a real life fox when I used to manage a barn. He used to just watch me from the horse field when I'd be working but braved up a bit and eventually got to the point where he would sleep on a hay bale in the barn aisle while I mucked stalls. He helped keep the mice problem down so I totally didn't mind him intruding. So needless to say, I wanted a fox to be a part of this piece.

Now that I have written a novel explaining this tattoo, here are the pics.
Here is the original drawing my tattooer drew up for me. This is a completely custom piece.

We ended up having to flip the drawing to make it fit correctly on my right arm. Here is the line work.

"Dogs are our link to paradise. They do not know jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing wasn't boring, it was peace."

Bodhi is the opposite of ignorance, the insight into reality which destroys mental afflictions and brings peace.

OMG I LOVE this! So beautiful! I love the Native American culture, and have always been drawn to it. It would be interesting to find out whether or not I have any Native American in my lineage. I think it's so cool about your dreams/the fox.